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A Savior Born to Die!

By livingabovethenoise

A Savior Born to Die!

A Savior born to us!

A Savior born to teach us how to live – and trust.

A Savior born to make us right with God.

A Savior born to die.

A people dead since Adam …

… needing salvation.

… needing to trust.

… born to die.

A people needing to trust in Christ alone for salvation from eternal death.

A Savior born to us!

A Savior born to die!

Hallelujah!

In Him alone are we saved.

In Him alone are we renewed.

In Him alone will we trust.

In Him alone are we reconciled to God.

In Him alone.

And only by His death.

A Savior born to us!

A Savior born to die.

Hallelujah!

Christ was born –

so He could die!

His death destroying our death.

His resurrection restoring our life.

And He will come again!

Praise His name!

A Savior born to us!

A Savior born to die.

Hallelujah!

And so……..Merry Christmas!

Our Favorite Christmas Breakfast Recipes – Eggs Portugal & Cranberry Puffs

By livingabovethenoise

For as long as I can remember, we’ve made our favorite Christmas breakfast. I discovered it at a women’s luncheon over thirty years ago and it’s a win with any guest at our feast!

We prepare it the night before, which makes Christmas morning a breeze. Our original recipe is called Eggs Portugal, but some just call it Egg/Sausage Casserole.

We serve this with Cranberry Puffs and fruit salad to create a delicious and quick breakfast. f

It gives the feel of a feast fit for a king — and for celebrating the birth of our King!
Enjoy! Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a delicious meal!

Egg Portugal (Serves about 8)

1 package sausage (we use turkey sausage for reduced fat)
1 medium onion, chopped
12 slices of bread, cubed – we prefer a more chewy bread (sourdough or french) over the typical sliced bread
1 1/2 c. grated cheddar cheese (reserve 1/2 c. to sprinkle over the top just before serving)
1 c. sliced or diced mushrooms, cooked or canned (optional)

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6 eggs
3 ¼ c. milk
4 t. yellow or brown mustard (not powdered)
1 ½ 10 oz. cans cream of mushroom soup (we make ours from scratch to avoid additives)
1/3 c. sherry or cooking wine (this adds a great touch of flavor!)

Directions:

Crumble sausage and cook until brown.
Add onions to sausage and lightly saute’.
Put cubed bread in greased 9×13 casserole.
Top with cheese, sausage, onions, and mushrooms. Lightly stir with spatula to mix ingredients with bread.
Blend liquid ingredients: eggs, milk, mustard, soup, and wine – pour over bread mixture in casserole dish.
Refrigerate covered overnight (you can make this an hour or so before cooking and and it turns out fine 😉).

Bake uncovered for ½ at 350* — then turn oven down to 300* and bake 1 hour until firm in the center.

Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top and bake another 10 minutes. Let sit on counter for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Yum!

What a beautiful way to display these treats!

Cranberry Puffs (makes approx. 24 – 1 1/2″ puffs)

Scrumptious, light, and easy to make!

1 c. hot water
½ c. dried cranberries

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1 c. water
½ c. butter
1 t. sugar
¼ t. salt
1 c. flour
4 eggs

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Glaze:

1 T. butter
5 t. milk
½ c. powdered sugar
1 T. lemon juice
½ t. vanilla

Directions:

Pour 1 cup hot water over cranberries – let sit 5 minutes, drain and set aside.
In a saucepan, bring water, butter, sugar, and salt to a boil.
Add flour slowly and mix briskly until a smooth ball forms.
Remove from heat and beat in eggs – mix well.
Stir in cranberries.
Drop by tablespoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto greased baking sheet.

Bake at 375* for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

Mix glaze ingredients together and pour over puffs.

**These make a great addition to any breakfast. Makes a healthy snack when made without the glaze.

Enjoy! 🎄

The ‘Back Office’ Test – The Christmas Tree That Took Over…..Our Living Room!

By livingabovethenoise

Well, yesterday I had my chance to see how long it would take me to go from living in a present disappointment before entering into ‘life’s Back Office’ (see last post). Here’s the story!

My husband and children decided it was time to pick and cut our Christmas tree. I wasn’t feeling well so was happy to let them wander around on our ATV looking for the ‘perfect’ tree. Well, perfect is subjective, right? Definitely!

So it was chosen, cut, and dragged to our porch where it was dutifully placed in water to keep it from drying out too fast. Then we sat down to dinner, during which, someone, not sure who :o), mentioned the fact that the tree is ‘kind of wide and tall’ and that it should fit in the living room. Yikes! What was that I heard?!

My husband was seen measuring with his arms and looking towards the ceiling with high hopes. But his face hinted a bit of concern. Quickly, I scurried outside to see what my troops had dragged home. Oh, my! As they stood it on it’s stump it reached almost twice as high as my six foot tall husband! As I was wondering how we’d make this work, hubby was feeling proud of the fact that he gauged it correctly and it would indeed fit our living room ceiling!

We spent the rest of the night trimming it’s branches and adjusting it’s boughs to turn it into the perfect tree. As I saw that huge tree making it’s home in our living room for the next month, I was tempted to be frustrated by the fact that I’d need to wait another year to have that quaint, old-fashioned, small fir tree I’ve been hoping for in recent years. Then I remembered the ‘Back Office’ of my life, that place where God is doing His work, the work of conforming me to His Son’s image. And I could suddenly see the beauty of that tree and, with new eyes, I formed the reasons why it is the perfect tree!

1) We won’t have to move the loveseat because the tree rises so far above the back of it that it’s beauty isn’t hidden!

2) And, it is perfect for keeping little, grandbaby hands away from all those precious ornaments we’ve collected over the years. All those memories from Christmas’ past that our children will share with their children will be kept intact!

So you see, that ‘back office’ is a place we should venture often. There’s always something more for us to learn than meets the eye!

‘For I know the plans that I have for you, ‘declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29 11-13

Entering Into Life’s ‘Back Office’ – Lessons Learned from our Holiday Gift Fair

By livingabovethenoise

In my Lilla Rose business, we have what’s called a ‘Back Office’ on our website, where we do our ordering, party information, and the like. And even beyond that is the corporate office where the company is managed and decisions are made.

Well, this post has me seeing life and lessons from the ‘Back Office’ of time and space, a place I couldn’t see just a few days ago. And isn’t that the way life is?

Our family has been organizing and preparing for a Holiday Gift Fair for the last few months. We’ve spent time getting the word out, finding other interested families, designing and creating the many projects and gifts to sell at the fair, and preparing the store for our event.

We’ve anticipated the event; we worked until the wee hours of the night; we cut, sewed, planed, glued, cropped, created, and more! We cleaned and scrubbed, organized and decorated the store that was graciously given to us to use for the day. All with the knowledge that we just might not sell a thing! I knew we might just do ‘okay’, but, we never guessed that it would go ‘not okay’! And that’s just what happened! We each sold a few things, but for the time and energy, it was definitely not worth it – from our human perspective.

At first glance it’s easy to call this a waste, individually and as a family, for the amount of time spent to put on such an event. But something I learned many years ago when we began homeschooling, was how to look at a ‘flop’ of a day, or a project-gone-bad with new eyes. Through God’s eyes. We need to enter into life’s ‘Back Office’ to see what’s really going on.

And as we look at our experience with the holiday fair, we need to enter into our ‘Back Office’, searching for what God is teaching and revealing to us about His plans and our life’s many lessons.

Lessons learned from the ‘Back Office’:

– How well we work together as a family.

– How gifted each of our family members are, and being able to see one another’s talents.

– How important location, location, location is!

– To advertise early and a lot.

– How good it is to work hard, to prove ourselves.

– That character is built in the face of discouragement.

– Our daughter added some great insight – “Even if we don’t sell a thing, it at least got each of us to get our businesses going!”

– How fun it is to get out and meet new people.

We will never be able to enter into “the Corporate Office” – that’s for God alone – but if we will quiet and humble ourselves long enough, we certainly will find new perspective in our own “Back Office”!

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